Este trabalho procura analisar a história libanesa (até abril de 2005), no intuito de encontrar subsídios para entender se o Estado que fora criado após o Mandato francês (1920-43), transformou-se numa Democracia. A discussão acerca de o Líbano ser considerado estadonação, também está presente no contexto histórico desse trabalho. Paralelamente aos questionamentos feitos sobre o sistema político libanês, analisam-se o surgimento do grupo xiita (Hizbullah), seu projeto islamista inicial e suas razões para transformar-se em partido político. Questionam-se as ligações: Hizbullah-Irã e Hizbullah- Síria. Na conclusão questiona-se, a partir dos modelos de democracia de Dahl, Lijphart e Sartori, se o Líbano hoje é um país democrático e se houve transformação no sistema político libanês com a inserção de uma organização islamista. / This work analyzes Lebanon\'s history until April, 2005, with the objective to determine if the State that came into being at the end of the French Mandate (1943) evolved into a democracy. The historical introduction also discusses to what degree Lebanon can be considered a nationstate. In parallel to the arguments about the Lebanese political system, we analyze the emergence of the Shiite group Hizbullah is analyzed, its initial Islamist project, and its transformation into a political party. Its links with Iran and Syria are also considered. In conclusion Dahl\'s, Lijphart\'s, and Sartori\'s models are applied to inquire if Lebanon today is a democratic country, and to what extent its political system had changed through the integration of an Islamist organization.

Este trabalho procura analisar a história libanesa (até abril de 2005), no intuito de encontrar subsídios para entender se o Estado que fora criado após o Mandato francês (1920-43), transformou-se numa Democracia. A discussão acerca de o Líbano ser considerado estadonação, também está presente no contexto histórico desse trabalho. Paralelamente aos questionamentos feitos sobre o sistema político libanês, analisam-se o surgimento do grupo xiita (Hizbullah), seu projeto islamista inicial e suas razões para transformar-se em partido político. Questionam-se as ligações: Hizbullah-Irã e Hizbullah- Síria. Na conclusão questiona-se, a partir dos modelos de democracia de Dahl, Lijphart e Sartori, se o Líbano hoje é um país democrático e se houve transformação no sistema político libanês com a inserção de uma organização islamista. / This work analyzes Lebanon\'s history until April, 2005, with the objective to determine if the State that came into being at the end of the French Mandate (1943) evolved into a democracy. The historical introduction also discusses to what degree Lebanon can be considered a nationstate. In parallel to the arguments about the Lebanese political system, we analyze the emergence of the Shiite group Hizbullah is analyzed, its initial Islamist project, and its transformation into a political party. Its links with Iran and Syria are also considered. In conclusion Dahl\'s, Lijphart\'s, and Sartori\'s models are applied to inquire if Lebanon today is a democratic country, and to what extent its political system had changed through the integration of an Islamist organization.

In 2006, Hizbullah operatives captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack, prompting a 34-day war in which neither Israel nor Hizbullah emerged victorious. Yet despite Hizbullah’s instigation of the war, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hizbullah, largely retained both his popular appeal and his legitimacy during and after the conflict. Noting this paradox, I examine how Nasrallah maintained his legitimacy, defined as having an accepted claim to authority, throughout and after the war. To do so, I perform content analysis on the seven major speeches that Nasrallah delivered during the war in order to answer the following question: How did Nasrallah utilize rhetoric to maintain his legitimacy as Hizbullah’s leader throughout the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah? I then draw upon these observations to discuss my subsidiary research question: How does having a better understanding of political rhetoric, particularly in terms of Hizbullah, affect U.S. policies towards the Middle East, and specifically in Lebanon? I argue that Nasrallah framed his message in these speeches using three particular themes: the “us versus them” narrative; the fulfillment of a divinely inspired mission, also known as the NasR ilaahi, or the divine triumph theme; and Hizbullah’s role as the protector of the Lebanese and the Palestinians. In tandem with Hizbullah’s self-identification as a resistance movement, I show that Nasrallah continuously qualified Hizbullah’s mission as defensive. I also demonstrate that Nasrallah chose his words to foster a sense of community and common purpose. Additionally, I note that he often appealed to values widely held through the Arab world, including the sense of karaama, or dignity, and taDaamun, or solidarity, in his remarks. To answer the second question, I review current U.S. policies towards Lebanon and note the ways in which these policies may not resonate with the Lebanese population. I argue that current U.S. policies, which focus on supporting the Lebanese Armed Forces, the Internal Security Forces, developing stronger civil society, and promoting democratization, do not counter Hizbullah’s power partly because U.S. public diplomacy initiatives do not take Nasrallah’s rhetoric and legitimacy into account. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, August, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

This is a study of the identities and political mobilisation of the Lebanese Shiʿa throughout the modern history of Lebanon. Currently, the dominant paradigms for such studies focus on the question of sectarianism in Lebanon and the corresponding Shiʿi political movements, Amal and Hizbullah. This thesis presents an alternative approach. It argues that secular identities have also been an important component of the Shiʿi community’s political mobilisation. This is explored through an analysis of the relationship between the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) and the communist Shiʿa. Drawing on interviews with senior LCP officials, current and former Shiʿi communists, party documents and additional interview evidence from the documentary film, We Were Communists, this thesis examines the origins, evolution and transformation of the relationship between the LCP and the Shiʿa after Lebanese independence in 1943, until the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990. Utilising the concepts of identity and political mobilisation, this thesis develops a hybridised approach to the study of political identity that combines primordial with constructionist readings of identity. This acknowledges the presence of a repertoire of multiple and varied identities among any individual or group, and their potential for mobilisation. Rather than assuming the domineering influence of primordial sentiments, such as sectarian identity, the hybridised approach requires an analysis of the conditions under which a particular identity becomes the basis for political mobilisation. In the aftermath of Lebanese independence in 1943, the Shiʿi community’s political mobilisation was characterised by a politics of resistance. This was a product of the legacy of the Shiʿi community’s experience of the French Mandate (1920-1943), as well as the newly reformulated confessional political system that was established by the National Pact (1943). The net effect of these processes was the marginalisation of the Shiʿa. The LCP, as a prominent anti-system opposition movement in Lebanon at this time, became the Shiʿi community’s main vehicle for the mobilisation and development of their resistance identity. During the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) the relationship between communism and the Shiʿa transformed as the LCP went into decline and new Shiʿi political actors emerged. The mantle of the Shiʿi community’s resistance identity became subject to the tensions between communism and communalism within the community. In the end, the Shiʿi community’s resistance identity was adopted and repackaged by Hizbullah, under whose auspices it remains today. The Shiʿi-communist relationship constitutes the Shiʿi community’s first engagement with formal, party-based and ideologically driven political mobilisation in Lebanon. The impact and legacy of the LCP’s influence on the Shiʿa in these terms encompasses not just the communist Shiʿa, but every other political actor in the community. Concern over the growing influence of communism led directly to the political mobilisation of the previously quietist Shiʿi religious clerics. This outcome is represented by the arrival of Imam Musa al-Sadr to Lebanon in 1959 and his stated goal of combatting the influence of communism among the Shiʿa. This thesis is an important addendum to the current understanding of the origins of Shiʿi political mobilisation, which erroneously place Musa al-Sadr at the beginning of that process. This study’s emphasis on alternative, non-sectarian forms of political identity is also a reminder of the Shiʿi community’s political diversity at a time when critical voices, resentful of Hizbullah’s and Amal’s monopoly, are currently emerging from within the ShiʿI community.

This thesis investigates the failed state label on Lebanon. The thesis explores how Lebanon falls under the paradigm and how Lebanon contradicts, at times, the failed state model with the inclusion of Hizbullah.

This thesis explores the ideological foundations of three jihadist organizations, Hizbullah, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State (IS). All three are categorized as international terrorist organizations but their goals differ. Hizbullah seeks to alter the government within Lebanon, al-Qaeda seeks to eliminate Western influences in Muslim inhabited territories, and IS seeks to create a caliphate within a large portion of the Middle East. The similarities and differences of these three organizations will be illuminated through this examination. The primary focus of the examination focuses on their religious teachings and discourse, as this is a critical aspect of their ideologies. Through this examination, the differences in discourse coinciding with the differing goals of each organization is presented. The discourse of each organization facilitates their goals, recruitment of fighters, and explanation of their actions. Self/other identification is a commonality of all three ideologies but the identification of the other is different according to each organizations goals. This thesis will highlight this aspect and allow for further discussion of the three organizations in future research. The conclusion will allow for discussion as to who gains and maintains power and whether religion is a base or merely a tool for this power. / Master of Arts

The influence of the role identity expectations of Turkish Hizbullah's leadership on actual members' terrorist identities was documented in this dissertation. This study explored the leadership's identity expectations from members through content analyses of four books written by major figures of Hizbullah. Those books were selected following comments of the literature and expert suggestions. Eleven identity features stood out. These content analyses also revealed that leadership had different expectations from political wing members and military wing members. The following six identity features were listed as expected more from military wing members: belief in jihad and resistance, desire for martyrdom, embracing the hierarchical structure, depersonalization, hatred against enemies of God, and aloneness. Whilst cemaat (religious congregation), being religiously educated, patience (gradualism), dedication to a Muslim brotherhood, and being politically active were listed as expected identity attributes of political wing members. Qualitative analyses investigated these identity features using the available literature and 144 handwritten reports of actual Hizbullah members. To confirm the findings of content and qualitative analyses, quantitative analyses were conducted on the relatively representative sample (144 reports). The results of cross-tabulation and logistic regression demonstrated that two (out of 6) military wing and two (out of 5) political wing identity expectations were not manifested on actual members' Hizbullah identities.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how national identity is discursively constructed by Hizbullah at a time of national crisis, and to shed light on its potential effects on the social world. The critical discourse analysis focuses on how difference and otherness are constructed on Hizbullah’s television channel Al-Manar. It illuminates Hizbullah’s discursive construal of a national in-group and an ‘enemy’ out-group, and identifies the main discourses that Hizbullah draws upon. The backdrop is the violent events in the Lebanese town of Arsal, erupting in early August 2014 and soon amounting to a national crisis. How Hizbullah, one of the main political actors in Lebanon and the region, constructs the world discursively does arguably have impact on the social world. The analysis identifies an order of discourse that on the one hand is permeated by pluralism and inclusion and on the other hand influenced by an exclusionary discourse connecting the out-group to terrorism. The author suggests that the Western discourse of ‘war on terrorism’ has been recontextualised by Hizbullah, and argues that there are reasons to pay close attention to the potentially harmful socially constructive effects of this discourse. Nevertheless, a cross-confessional national unity is simultaneously highlighted in Hizbullah’s discourse.